Monday, August 08, 2005

Report: August 1-7

It was a week full of poor planning, error and many miles of driving, but everyone survived.

The Boy 7 and his friend attended another camp downtown this week. Monday and Friday were my days to pick up. Both days I biked from work, met the boys, explored downtown for 30 minutes then boarded the bus for home. Both days involved single occupant trips in the car for mobile bus stops. In all the excitement of Monday’s trip home it finally happened…we exited the bus and headed for the nearby car and I walked away from the bus, leaving my bike behind. Thankfully, the driver alerted me. Friday as I waited with my bike at the morning stop I arrived at the realization that I would need a car to get the three of us home. Ride home, get the car, leave the car and ride to work after having long since missed the bus.

After a long hard summer for The Race Bike, Wednesday it was finally intact enough for real use. Early in the summer we replaced the hydraulic disc brake system with a substitute that hopefully will work a little better below 50 degrees. Shortly after that we sent the front suspension away for some factory repair. I used the car for mobile bus stop so that I could ride the repaired bike home and was I woefully unprepared for that. Here is a list of what went wrong: the clipless shoes I brought didn’t match the clipless pedals on the bike, I brought a half pair of gloves, and I purchased Gatorade to fill my bottle but the bike didn’t have a cage to hold the bottle. It’s a wonder I made it home.

The two other trips and 187 of the 200 miles are attached to a very hard day for the MinusCar Project, yet a very normal and happy day for the life of most people. I traveled 90 miles away to Ponca State Park in Nebraska, for some off-road bicycling. This trip required that I fill the car with gas for the first time since May 25th. Of course, it was a fun trip, good company, and very nice riding.